Legal

In the mid-1990s, Dr. Samuel Pallin patented a type of stitch-less cataract surgery procedure. He attempted to license the patent to other ophthalmologists. One such surgeon was Dr. Jack Singer. Singer not only refused the demand for royalties, but started a broad political movement against medical procedure patents. Singer argued he actually devised the procedure before Pallin’s patent was filed. Pallin said he was not interested in the money, but recognition. Pallin had … Read more

Most physicians defer to patients’ wishes as to how they want to be called. It’s a sign of deferential respect. If there’s a 40-year age discrepancy between a young treating physician and an elderly Medicare patient, the senior likely doesn’t want to be called Pops.   There’s a brewing brouhaha in California related to Senate Bill 219 which … Read more

NYU Medical School recently announced it will waive tuition for all medical students, now and going forward. NYU has raised $450M of the needed $600M to fund this gift in perpetuity. Kenneth Langone (one of the Home Depot founders) and his wife donated $100M.   One reason NYU made this commitment was because many medical students are saddled with crushing … Read more

Guest Blog Post by David Mokotoff, MD The past decade has seen an enormous upheaval in the practice of medicine. The private independent medical practice is in danger of extinction. Management overhead and red tape has skyrocketed due to government regulations and private insurance and pharmaceutical benefit rules. Added to that are multiple electronic medical … Read more

Medical practices often add new techniques and procedures to increase revenue. I’m not suggesting the only reason is revenue. Presumably it’s to serve the patient and make a living BY serving the patient. And, I’m not opposed to physicians expanding what they do from treating disease to promoting health. But, I must admit, I did … Read more

A recent article evaluated 112 recorded clinical encounters. The rationale was testing of “shared decision-making tools.” I was confused by the findings and conclusions.   In 27 of the 40 (67%) encounters in which clinicians elicited patient concerns, the clinician interrupted the patient after a median of 11 seconds (interquartile range 7–22; range 3 to 234 s). Uninterrupted patients took a … Read more

Yes, I know. The sun rises in the east. Sets in the west. And 2+2=4. Most of the time, when an attorney requests a copy of medical records for something like a personal injury case, auto accident, worker’s comp, they are professional, courteous, and offer to pay you the reasonable cost of copying the record. … Read more

Patients may be unhappy with their doctor for a variety of reasons. Dialogue solves most of them. But, sometimes this angst escalates. It culminates in a threat. All threats are not equal in the eyes of the law. A common threat is “Give me my money back and I will not slam you online.” Or … Read more

A famous US Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart once opined on obscenity: “I know it when I see it.” The Maryland Board of Medicine weighed in on whether it was unprofessional to write a prescription for a patient at a restaurant / bar. Excerpts from the legal case tell the tale. On October 1, 2012, … Read more

First, let’s discuss the difference between a service animal and a therapy animal.  According to the U.S. Department of Justice, “service animals are defined as dogs that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities. Examples of such work or tasks include guiding people who are blind, alerting people who are … Read more